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# Quicken QIF File Import

GnuCash supports the import of Quicken Import Files (QIF). (Note: Only Quicken Version 3.0 QIF has been formally tested so far.)

Note that the QIF format is representative of a somewhat peculiar data model that is not as expressive as one might wish; it requires dumping out a separate data file for each account, rather than permitting you to have one file that represents all of the accounts you might have had in Quicken.

Furthermore, while there are plans to do so in the future, there is not, at this point, a way of mapping the account or category names used in Quicken to a different set of account names that you might be using in GnuCash.

As a result, please read this section carefully. You may be somewhat disappointed with the results of a QIF import; this will at least give you some more accurate expectations as to what will happen.

## Creating QIF Files

To create a set of Quicken `QIF` files, perform the following procedure:

- Start Quicken.

  It works on Wine, Caldera's Wabi, and doubtless on VMWare, so this may not forcibly require that you run Windows.

- Select the account that you wish to export.

  Quicken can only export one account to each data file, which means that if you have many accounts, this may prove to be a somewhat tedious process. (On the other hand, it should be a whole lot less tedious than entering the data from scratch.)

- Choose the menu File and select the Export... menu entry.

  This will provide a dialog that requests a filename, effective dates, as well as a series of checkboxes, including Transactions, Accounts List, Category List, and so forth.

  For best results, you should make sure that those three are checked.

  If you do not check the Accounts List box, then the name of your account will likely be lost, and that will cause problems when you try to import the data into GnuCash later.

Now you have a set of `.QIF` files, and should run GnuCash.

## Loading QIF files into GnuCash

- To import a Quicken QIF file, choose the menu File and select the entry Import QIF.

- The imported file will be merged with whatever other data you currently have in GnuCash. The merge allows multiple Quicken accounts to be imported and merged into one account group.

## Things To Note About QIF Import

- Duplicate Entry Scanning

  Note that during merge, a scan is made for duplicate transactions, and duplicates are removed. A duplicate transaction is one where the date, description (payee), memo, quantity, share price, and debited/credited accounts or categories match exactly. Thus, the merge should be safe unless you have multiple transactions on the same date, to the same account, for the same amount, with the same description and memo.

  This unfortunately can occur, the typical scenario involving where you make multiple withdrawals of identical amounts from ATM machines on the same day.

- Empty Accounts

  Note that when the Accounts List and Category List is exported from Quicken, all accounts and categories will be exported, even if they are empty and contain no transactions. When these are imported, they will appear as accounts with a balance of zero. If you do not plan to use such accounts, feel free to delete them. Future enhancements may allow you to delete them "en masse," or to make them invisible without deleting them.

- QIF Mark II An ongoing project is to build an alternative import utility in Guile that will be more flexible, and which, by virtue of being stored as a set of Scheme scripts, may be modified without needing to recompile the whole application.

  At this point, it successfully parses `QIF` files; what remains is the (rather complex task) of determine appropriate correspondences between the Quicken Categories and the GnuCash equivalents. That is one of the most significant weaknesses with the present QIF import scheme.

- More about QIF

  Further details about the QIF Interchange Format may be found here.

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